tanking sastasha a disaster >.<

so i decided to get my gld up as well alongside mrd, but had so much trouble tanking in sastasha. here was what i did:

1. shield lob
2. flash when mobs are near me
3. fast blade > flash > riot blade to balance off the mp consumption. before anyone says anything, this was the ONLY way i could hold hate from groups of mobs... the moment i was unable to execute this rotation mobs would start running everywhere :/ and that was exactly what happened sometime: i would miss a stray here and there, so as i was running towards the mage trying to do a flash, i would break my rotation... and hate was just bounding all over the place... i didnt even have time to reposition myself because running to a new place = not hitting and not flashing = no hate = sucky tank...

normal? i had an easier time on mrd for sure

Riot blade doesn't generate any enmity. I start with shield lob, flash, fast blade, savage blade. savage blade is your enmity builder. also, mark your targets so your dps is on the same page. AND make sure the party knows that if they DO pick up aggro, they need to be the ones running to you, not the other way around.

i understand that RB doesnt generate aggro, but what about the adds? i tried rotating FB - SB from target 1 to 2 then to 3. it works when we have 2 targets, bur with 3, the aggro on the 3rd wears off before its its turn, and therefore i had to rely on flash, which require RB for mp, which means i coulsnt do SB, and the aggro issue all over again

I'm by no means a great tank, I'm still learning and have a long way to go, but it sounds to me like dps is hitting secondary targets. or someone is over healing maybe? in the scenario you are describing i throw in only the occasional flash to make sure i keep aggro off the healer, other than that they stick to me like glue unless people are attacking the mobs that are only being held on me by the occasional flash/sb
hopefully a much better tank than me can step in here soon for you and give some better insight.

Flash x2, Savage combo main, Flash, FB main, savage add, Flash, FB main, savage next add (or main of there is only two), repeat.

A DD will possibly pull hate when the first mobs at low health, not an issue at that level as the mobs don't hit hard enough to justify full undies.

Endgame what's recommended for large pulls is dumping half your MP in flashes then start the Riot combo with flashes in between, it's actually a lot easier to hold hate at low levels unless you're under geared or pull a large pack (enmity split on savage blades, more cures, etc).

A shield lob on the primary target, two flashes when the group of mobs is in range, a Fast -> Savage on the main target, and after that opening combo the only way you should have lost aggro is if either the mobs hit so hard that the healer had to heal you for millions of damage on the pull, or DPS are attacking two targets.

Are you marking a 1 on the primary target? It helps a tonne. You can hotkey it to make it quicker. Flash spam will never hold aggro off two dps that are trying to attack different targets. Flash is there to keep big packs off the healer really, and even then you still ideally need to rotate some single target enmity skills amongst the pack.

thanks guy! gonna try it out later!

I use, shield lob, flash x2, FB, RB, FB, RB, flash, FB, RB etc.
Seems to hold pretty well, never really use SB unless I'm on a single target and my MP is full.

Oh....basically what Sapphidia said

My first ever tanking run in Satasha I found really easy. I'd shield lob and mark the first target, drop a couple of flashes dps would attack my target, and it was a very smooth run.

Copperbell however, I had a lancer and archer that both attacked different targets, but not mine, and the run was a complete mess. How we cleared it I'll never know.

The key to good tanking, is good dps who attack targets. If you get wannabe tanks as dps, be prepared for a very messy and stressful time.

just did another 5 runs consisting of sastasha and tamtara - they turned out much better. i reckon ny initial run just had dps attacking different targets.... and the monk always ran ahead of me to pull :(

anyhow, my rotation was lob, 2x flash, fb to sb on main, then one sb pet mob on all the adds (if blm isnt sleeping) until the its the main's turn, rinse and repeat, then move on to 2nd target after main has gotten down to loke 5 percent-ish.

Yea my first outing in TOKO with my 26 glad alt, was a Thm who pulled straight off, not to sleep, to attack. I told them not to pull, he wasn't satisfied with that answer told me he knew what he was doing and I should just move on and shut up.
Next after sleeping the mob I put the link on, the archer attacked it when I was attacking the main target. No focus just attack. The healer was healing me the archer died, and then complained that I couldnt hold aggro, that it was my fault he was dead.

I don't mess around with people who aren't there to have fun and get xp and get loot so I left. I hope I never run into them again, but anything is possible with the duty finder.

It'll be rougher at lower levels I'm guessing, as people haven't yet learned the way the game works. Also I started at the lowest possible level getting in, and people were 3-4 levels above me, better gear, easier to do a lot of damage to compete with. When I played FFXI you didn't touch sleeping mobs until a tank woke them up, you only attacked the tank's primary target, etc. I'm just gonna assume people will pick up on those tactics along the way (as the game community of ARR gets older, not necessarily as levels get higher)

Marking is great if people follow it. But I do enjoy fighting for aggro with people who make it difficult. The tank's job is to be in control of the entire battle as much as possible, and learning how to do that when things are chaotic will be extremely useful later on.

I remember when I was tanking Sastasha that it was slightly difficult due to lack of skills and high GCD. Use Flash a few times at the start of the battle after you lead off on a primary target with Shield Lob. In general you want to start off with a method to pull mobs back to a safe battle area away from potential extra mobs.


There are a few general tanking tips ..

- Gather all mobs up, let the group know you need a bit of time to gather mobs(if you are new).

- Position mobs away from the rest of the group (Generally) , try maneuvering to figure out the best technique for you.

- Try to gain a lead on rotations as much as possible on the first mob, then you will eventually reach a point where you will know that there's enough threat sticking to you to work on the next mob.

- Alternate between targets to check the threat levels, if any threat levels are increasingly higher, make sure you generate some secondary threat to them.

- Make sure you overlap your "stay alive" buttons to ease stress off the healer, and keep yourself alive. If you weave them properly you will have better survivability.

Here's my approach to PLD engaging large groups of trash mobs - currently lvl 40:

1. Shield lob on the way in.
2. Get to where all mobs will be as fast as possible. Often this means running into the group more.
3. Flash
4. Defensive ability, like Rampart or Foresight. (Skip this if small group)
5. Flash
6. Fast Blade
7. Flash
7. Savage Blade
8. Rage of Halone (at lower levels you won't have this)

This usually accomplishes 2 things: agro on multiple targets, enough enmity on main target to keep it off DPS (Flash isn't enough for that).

Optionally, if getting hit hard (like a 5+ group), then I put in more defensive cooldowns between 5/6, 6/7, 7/8. Rampart, Foresight (MRD), Convalescence, Sentinel, Awareness, that sort of thing.

After the above I beat on the main target mostly, with the occasional Flash. It's good to space the Flash out a bit so as to take advantage of Blind effect more. Not counting the initial flurry though - you do that for the enmity.

Where I see DPS start attacking separate targets oftentimes is after the 1st mob dies.. DPS1 attacks mob2, DPS2 attacks mob3. In that case, since I'm already ahead on agro from Flash I can just alternate FB/SB/RoH combos and hold agro on 2 targets with DPS on both. Hopefully they don't do that, but my enmity has been enough to handle it at times. May require a good weapon.

I rarely ever use Riot Blade. Only thing to use mana for is Flash, and I seldom need to use more than a full mana bar in 1 fight. Definitely NOT recommending what that one person said about keeping mana full all the time. I do recall back before RoH using it more just because it has higher dmg than Savage Blade. But only in cases where I already had a ton of enmity built up and didn't need more. Also, I keep a few Hi-Ether for that rare situation when out of mana and you really need 1 more Flash.